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The Phantom Major: The Story of David Stirling and the SAS Regiment
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Paperback
Published January 1, 2010
About the author
Virginia Cowles
30 books66 followers(Harriet) Virginia Spencer Cowles OBE was a noted American journalist, biographer, and travel writer. During her long career, Cowles went from covering fashion, to covering the Spanish Civil War, the turbulent period in Europe leading up to World War II, and the entire war. Her service as a correspondent was recognized by the British government with an Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1947. After the war, she published a number of critically acclaimed biographies of historical figures. In 1983, while traveling with her husband in France, she was killed in an automobile accident near Biarritz.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 20, 2026
Virginia Cowles’ “The Phantom Major” is an interesting biography of Lieutenant-Colonel Sir David Stirling, DSO, OBE, a Scottish officer in the British Army and the founder and creator of the Special Air Service (SAS). Cowles, an American journalist, biographer, and travel writer, covered the North African campaign for the “Sunday Times” and the “Chicago Sun.” Under Stirling’s leadership, the SAS carried out hit-and-run raids behind the Axis lines throughout North Africa. Stirling bedeviled axis forces beginning in November 1941 until he was captured in January 1943.
Stirling was the son of Brigadier-General Archibald Stirling, of Keir, and Margaret Fraser, daughter of Simon Fraser, the Lord Lovat (a descendant of Charles II). An indifferent student, he attended Trinity College, Cambridge, for a year; in 1939 he joined the Scots Guard Supplementary Reserve of Officers and the next year the commando Brigade of Guards in the Middle East.
Stirling was unconventional, imaginative, and impudent. But Stirling had an idea and was determined to persuade someone in command of his genius. Hence the S.A.S. (Secret Air Service) was initiated. Stirling’s first sortie ended in disaster. His plan to parachute behind enemy lines and sabotage axis airfields came to naught.
Stirling was not daunted. For 14 months thereafter the SAS attempted various modes of attack: operating by land, in jeeps, in borrowed and camouflaged trucks, by foot, in hijacked lorries, small squads of men, fearless, sometimes foolish, highly trained, traveled hundreds of miles behind enemy lines. Stirling’s men destroyed aerodromes, car parks, ammunition dumps, railroad tracks and mined roads. SAS squads destroyed as many as 400 aircraft, probably more planes than the RAF could claim.
Stirling’s men would bivouac in scrub or wadis and then would strike on moonless nights. They innovated the Lewes bomb- an explosive and an incendiary. Prior to the American landings in Algeria and Tunisia, their successes were legion. In January 1943 Stirling’s luck ceased, a special German detachment captured the colonel.
Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery said "The boy Stirling is quite mad, quite, quite mad. However, in a war there is often a place for mad people." Not all historians acknowledge Stirling’s accomplishments. Gavin Mortimer dissents from Cowles largely laudatory biography. He avers that Stirling was an incompetent soldier and a foolhardy one; a man who jeopardized lives with careless talk and half-baked missions. Nonetheless, “The Phantom Major” is a gripping account of men at war.
Stirling was the son of Brigadier-General Archibald Stirling, of Keir, and Margaret Fraser, daughter of Simon Fraser, the Lord Lovat (a descendant of Charles II). An indifferent student, he attended Trinity College, Cambridge, for a year; in 1939 he joined the Scots Guard Supplementary Reserve of Officers and the next year the commando Brigade of Guards in the Middle East.
Stirling was unconventional, imaginative, and impudent. But Stirling had an idea and was determined to persuade someone in command of his genius. Hence the S.A.S. (Secret Air Service) was initiated. Stirling’s first sortie ended in disaster. His plan to parachute behind enemy lines and sabotage axis airfields came to naught.
Stirling was not daunted. For 14 months thereafter the SAS attempted various modes of attack: operating by land, in jeeps, in borrowed and camouflaged trucks, by foot, in hijacked lorries, small squads of men, fearless, sometimes foolish, highly trained, traveled hundreds of miles behind enemy lines. Stirling’s men destroyed aerodromes, car parks, ammunition dumps, railroad tracks and mined roads. SAS squads destroyed as many as 400 aircraft, probably more planes than the RAF could claim.
Stirling’s men would bivouac in scrub or wadis and then would strike on moonless nights. They innovated the Lewes bomb- an explosive and an incendiary. Prior to the American landings in Algeria and Tunisia, their successes were legion. In January 1943 Stirling’s luck ceased, a special German detachment captured the colonel.
Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery said "The boy Stirling is quite mad, quite, quite mad. However, in a war there is often a place for mad people." Not all historians acknowledge Stirling’s accomplishments. Gavin Mortimer dissents from Cowles largely laudatory biography. He avers that Stirling was an incompetent soldier and a foolhardy one; a man who jeopardized lives with careless talk and half-baked missions. Nonetheless, “The Phantom Major” is a gripping account of men at war.
July 3, 2026
I like this book a lot. I read it many, many years ago and it kindled my interest in WWII North Africa.
Most of the books I’ve read of the campaign left me with the impression that the Allies were just bumbling along and prevailed through sheer luck. But Stirling's SAS, as pictured in this book, left me with the impression that innovation carried the day.
Very well written and researched, entertaining and informative, it is worth every hour of reading.
Most of the books I’ve read of the campaign left me with the impression that the Allies were just bumbling along and prevailed through sheer luck. But Stirling's SAS, as pictured in this book, left me with the impression that innovation carried the day.
Very well written and researched, entertaining and informative, it is worth every hour of reading.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews